Chapter One

I used to be the perfect Luna—obedient, quiet, the martyr’s daughter.

Until coronation night, when my mate marked my cousin.

He called it “political necessity,” then offered me a two-Luna system—she’d have the title, and I’d have the “real thing.”

So I booked the most brutal procedure wolves can endure: brand extraction.

The moment silver runes cut through seven years of bond, he burst in—too late.

Seven years later, when I return as the strongest female Alpha, he’s already been reduced to a nobody.

……

……

The garden smelled like cold fir and something burning.

I followed that scent the way I always had — instinctively, without thinking — and I wish I hadn't.

I heard Lily before I saw her.

A soft sound, almost involuntary, the kind you make when something hurts and feels good at the same time. I followed it around the corner of the stone balustrade and stopped.

Aiden pinned her against the terrace’s stone pillar. His mouth was at her throat. His teeth were already in.

I knew what I was looking at. Every wolf knows what a marking looks like. The bond-seal, the claim, the thing that cannot be undone. I had spent eight years waiting for him to give that to me.

"Aiden."

He pulled back. Lily flinched, her fingers flying to the fresh mark on her neck, her eyes going wide and immediately wet.

"Serina — My sis — " she started, voice already trembling. "You don't understand. The elders said the pack needed a stable Luna tonight, with all the allied families watching. I was just — temporarily — I didn't want to, but someone had to hold the position while you—"

"While I what?" I said.

She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.

Aiden turned to face me. His gold eyes were steady, which was almost the worst part. Not guilty. Not caught. Steady, as though this were a meeting he had prepared for.

"Serina," he said. "This isn't the place."

"You marked her," I said. "On our coronation night. You marked my cousin."

"I made a calculation," he said. "Lily's family holds four of the border alliances. Without their full confidence tonight, the summit collapses. You know what that means for the pack."

"So you bit her."I said.”The pack will know it.”

“No — ”

Lily pressed forward then, hands out, voice thin and urgent. "Please, please don't do this here — Serina, it was only political —"

Shouts rang out behind me, and the railing in front left me nowhere to run.

Then, I don't remember hitting the ground.

—

The medical ward smelled of antiseptic. I came back to consciousness in pieces: the ceiling first, then the dull deep ache running from my shoulder to my ribs on the right side. Cracked. At least two.

Aiden was already sitting beside the bed.

“Serina.”

He didn't ask how I felt. He didn't ask whether I was in pain. He folded his hands and looked at me with those steady gold eyes and he said:

"I'll be direct with you. To stabilize the alliance with Lily's family, I've completed the marking. What I'm proposing now is a dual-Luna arrangement — she hold the formal title publicly, you maintains privately. It's the only solution that keeps the pack unified."

I stared at the ceiling for a moment.

Then I said, "Do you love her?"

A pause. Not long — just long enough to be a real pause, the kind that means something was considered. Then he reached across and placed his hand over mine on the blanket. His voice softened.

"I promise you," he said. "The only one I will ever love is you.You will be the real Luna."

I looked at his hand on mine. I looked at his face. I held the sentence up in my mind and examined it.

It was not a vow. It was a key. The exact combination of words most likely to open the lock he needed opened: my compliance, my silence, my willingness to accept the arrangement and call it love. I was the most useful piece on his board. The fated mate's name to calm the allied families. The dual arrangement to quiet Lily's people. And my obedience — that cost him nothing.

My parents died for this pack. Both of them. And now their daughter was being asked to smile and stand aside, and not one elder had come through that door tonight to ask whether I had broken bones.

The door opened.

Lily stepped in. Her eyes were red. Her shoulders were curved inward at that particular angle she had — the one that made her look like she was apologizing for existing, that made people want to reassure her. I had watched her use it my entire life.

"Serina," she said softly. "I only wanted to help stabilize things for you. I hope you know that."

I looked at her. I looked at him.

"Get out," I said. "Both of you. Everyone — get out."

Something moved across Aiden's face. He started to say my name.

"Out," I said again.

They left. The door closed. The room was quiet.

I lay there in the antiseptic dark and waited until I was certain I was alone. Then I reached for the mind-link — not toward Aiden, but deeper, further back, to the two threads that had been woven into my soul since childhood. My parents' sentinel wolves.

I need you, I said through the link. Both of you.

I felt them stir at the far end of it, alert.

The response was immediate. Warm. Steady.

We're here, my lady.

"I need you to arrange a mark-severance surgery," I said. "As soon as possible."

A long silence. Then the elder guardian's voice came back low and careful. "Miss Serina. That procedure — it is going to hurt."

"I know."

Are you certain?

I closed my eyes.

"Staying hurts more," I said. "Make the arrangements."

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